A Year in Review

In Search of the Milky Way. Taken at Cape Schanck, the southernmost tip of the Mornington Peninsula. It's only one hour drive away from the Melbourne city, but the sky is dark enough to see our beautiful galaxy.

It's been almost a year since I made a post! Time certainly flies when you're busy. A couple things happened over the year; I've since moved back to Melbourne, got married and started a new job.

I didn't stop taking pictures though. Since then two more lenses have joined the family: the Fujifilm XC 50-230mm and the Samyang/Rokinon 12mm f/2. The Samyang 12mm is a manual focus lens and has superb optical quality for its price. It's the perfect lens for astrophotography since it's wide and has a big maximum aperture — the cover picture is taken with the Samyang 12mm open wide at f/2. If it were taken with a lens with smaller maximum aperture (such as the Fuji 10-24mm f/4), it would increase the exposure time and star trails will be visible.

Anyway, here are some of my favourite pictures of the year.

Dendrites. Taken at a clear night sky at Gothenburg. The tree and its branches are contrasted beautifully in the night sky. The branches evoke the image of dendrites of a neuron.

Bird's Nest, Beijing National Stadium. It's fairly crowded and full of people taking pictures of this iconic stadium. I finally found a small window of time clear of people but later realised there was still someone in the picture!

Ling Long Pagoda. Home of a few broadcast studios (CCTV, CBC, etc).

Deers at the Richmond Park, London.

More deers.

Melbourne Skyline. Taken from the east along the Yarra river.

Latrobe Reading Room, State Library of Victoria.

Daisy, Carlton Gardens.

Princess Pier, St. Kilda.

Christmas in 2015, Princes Bridge.

Southgate at Twilight.

Chirpy. I am not a bird person but this is one of favourite bird picture! I was chilling after a bike ride at Fairfield Boathouse and this little guy just landed in front of me. He was a total poser.

River Torrens Footbridge. I went to Adelaide for a short work trip, and found this beautiful footbridge just behind my hotel. The river also had some gigantic pelicans!

A Walk in the Gallery. Daylesford Convent.

Velvet Lights. This is a scene that I pass everyday when I cycle home. That day, I decided to bring my tripod, left work when the sun was low, waited for the right moment and caught the trailing lights of the traffic on the highway.

Autumn Colours. Even though Argyle Square is one of the failed public spaces in Melbourne, it has beautiful, beautiful Sakura trees. In spring they are bright pink, and in autumn their leaves turn red orange.

San Diego Skyline. Taken just on the balcony of my room. I was camping the balcony every morning hoping to photograph the skyline during sunrise, but every morning was cloudy and sunless. This was taken on the first night and turned out to be the best one.

Sunset view at the San Diego Bay.